Daily Prelims Notes 25 January 2022

Daily Prelims Notes

25 January 2022

Table Of Contents

1. Monoclonal Antibodies
2. Omicron’s radical evolution
3. Independent Directors
4. Accommodative monetary policy
5. Black Carbon
6. Border Security Force
7. Central Government Health Scheme(CGHS)
8. National Policy on Electronics 2019
9. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

1. Monoclonal Antibodies

Subject – Science and Tech

Context – ‘Omicron may not evade all monoclonal antibodies’

Concept –

• Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made proteins that mimic the immune system’s ability to fight off harmful pathogens such as viruses.
  • Several past studies have shown that such antibodies are unsuccessful in neutralising Omicron.
• Monoclonal antibodies are among the most promising treatments for mild to moderate COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
• Monoclonal antibodies are just like your body’s antibodies but selected for their strong ability to resist the virus. They are produced like a medication and help your body fight illness.
• In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization to permit monoclonal antibodies as a treatment option for COVID-19.

To know about Monoclonal Antibody Therapy, please refer September 2021 DPN.

2. Omicron’s radical evolution

Subject – Science and Tech

Context – record-breaking wave of omicron cases

Concept –

• When the omicron variant took off in southern Africa in November, scientists were taken aback by its genetic makeup. Whereas earlier variants had differed from the original Wuhan version of the coronavirus by a dozen or two mutations, omicron had 53 — a shockingly large jump in viral evolution.
• An international team of scientists found that 13 of those mutations were rarely, if ever, found in other coronaviruses, suggesting they should have been harmful to omicron. Instead, when acting in concert, these mutations appear to be key to some of omicron’s most essential functions.
  • Some mutations were shared by omicron, delta and other variants, suggesting that they had arisen several times and that natural selection had favored them over and over again.
  • What makes these 13 mutations all the more intriguing is that they’re not randomly sprinkled across omicron’s spike. They form three clusters, each altering a small portion of the protein. And each of those three areas play a big part of what makes omicron unique.
  • Two of the clusters change the spike near its tip, making it harder for human antibodies to stick to the virus and keep it out of cells. As a result, omicron is good at infecting even people who have antibodies from vaccinations or a previous COVID infection.
  • The third cluster of mutations alters the spike closer to its base. This region, known as the fusion domain, swings into action once the tip of the spike has hooked onto a cell, enabling the virus to deliver its genes inside its new host.
  • Typically, coronaviruses use the fusion domain to merge with a cell’s membrane. Their genes can then float away into the depths of the cell.
  • But omicron’s fusion domain usually does something different. Rather than merging into the cell membrane, the whole virus gets swallowed up in a kind of cellular sink hole, which pinches off to form a bubble inside the cell. Once the virus is captured inside the bubble, it can break open and release its genes.
  • This new pathway to infection may help to explain why omicron is less severe than delta. The cells in the upper airway can readily swallow up omicron in bubbles. But deep in the lungs, where COVID can cause life-threatening damage, coronaviruses have to fuse to cells, which omicron doesn’t do well.

Mutations in coronavirus

• Mutations are a regular part of a coronavirus’s existence. Every time a virus replicates inside of a cell, there’s a small chance that the cell will create a flawed copy of its genes. Many of those mutations would make new viruses defective and unable to compete with other viruses.
• But a mutation can also improve a virus. It could make the virus stick more tightly to cells, for example, or make it replicate faster. Viruses that inherit a beneficial mutation may outcompete others.
• Over most of 2020, scientists found that different lineages of the coronavirus around the world gradually picked up a handful of mutations. The evolutionary process was slow and steady, until the end of the year.
• In December 2020, British researchers were jolted to discover a new variant in England carrying 23 mutations not found in the original coronavirus isolated in Wuhan, China, a year before.
  • That variant, later named alpha, soon swept to dominance worldwide. Over the course of 2021, other fast-spreading variants emerged.
• While some remained limited to certain countries or continents, the delta variant, with 20 distinctive mutations, ousted alpha and became dominant over the summer.
• And then came omicron, with more than twice as many mutations.

3. Independent Directors

Subject – Economy

Context – ICICI Bank fines former independent Director Rs 2 lakh

Concept –

• An Independent Director is a director on a board of directors representing minority shareholders and who does not have a pecuniary relationship with the company or related persons, except for sitting fees.
• Their role is to take a stand unambiguously and independently to have a check and balance on the exuberance of majority shareholders that may expose the company to unwarranted risks.
• In India, the Companies Act, 2013 defines ‘independent directors’ and codifies their duties and responsibilities.
• Schedule IV of the Act lays down the guidelines for professional conduct, role, functions, and duties of independent directors.
• The Companies Act, 2013 has mandated all listed public companies to have at least one-third of the total Directors to be independent.
• Their role requires them to be clinical while businesses expect them to be practical, that’s the tight rope they walk on.

4. Accommodative monetary policy

Subject – Economy

Context – An accommodative stance on public spending in budget holds key to economic revival

Concept –

• Accommodative monetary policy, also known as loose credit or easy monetary policy, occurs when a central bank attempts to expand the overall money supply to boost the economy when growth is slowing (as measured by GDP).
• The policy is implemented to allow the money supply to rise in line with national income and the demand for money.
• Accommodative monetary policy is triggered to encourage more spending from consumers and businesses by making money less expensive to borrow through the lowering of short-term interest rates.
• When money is easily accessible through banks, the money supply in the economy increases. This leads to increased spending.
• When businesses can easily borrow money, they have more funds to expand operations and hire more workers, which means that the unemployment rate will decrease.
• On the other hand, people and businesses tend to save less when the economy is stimulated due to the low savings interest rates offered by bank

To know about different Monetary Policy Stances, please refer November 2021 DPN.

Accommodative Fiscal policy

• Expansionary fiscal policy is when the government increases the money supply in the economy using budgetary instruments to either raise spending or cut taxes—both having more money to invest for customers and companies.
• Expansionary fiscal policy includes tax cuts, transfer payments, rebates and increased government spending on projects such as infrastructure improvements.

5. Black Carbon

Subject – Environment

Context – ‘Rising mercury is making Nepal glaciers vulnerable’

Concept –

• Chemically, black carbon (BC) is a component of fine particulate matter (PM ≤ 2.5 µm in aerodynamic diameter). Black carbon consists of pure carbon in several linked forms.
• It is formed through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, biofuel, and biomass, and is one of the main types of particle in both anthropogenic and naturally occurring soot.
• Black carbon causes human morbidity and premature mortality.
• In climatology, black carbon is a climate forcing agent contributing to global warming. Black carbon warms the Earth by absorbing sunlight and heating the atmosphere and by reducing albedo when deposited on snow and ice (direct effects) and indirectly by interaction with clouds.
• Black carbon stays in the atmosphere for only several days to weeks, whereas potent greenhouse gases have longer lifecyles, for example, carbon dioxide (CO2) has an atmospheric lifetime of more than 100 years.
  • The IPCC and other climate researchers have posited that reducing black carbon is one of the easiest ways to slow down short term global warming.
• The term black carbon is also used in soil sciences and geology, referring either to deposited atmospheric black carbon or to directly incorporated black carbon from vegetation fires.
  • Especially in the tropics, black carbon in soils significantly contributes to fertility as it is able to absorb important plant nutrients.

Key Figures

6. Border Security Force

Subject – Defence and Security

Context – The Border Security Force (BSF) on Monday said more than 100 terrorists were present at launch pads across the border, waiting to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir.

Concept –

• The Border Security Force (BSF) is India’s border guarding organisation on its border with Pakistan and Bangladesh.
• It is one of the five Central Armed Police Forces of India, and was raised in the wake of the 1965 War on 1 December 1965, “for ensuring the security of the borders of India and for matters connected there with”.
• It has various active roles during an outbreak of war. It is the only CAPF to have a full-fledged Water Wing, Air Wing and even an Artillery Regiment of its own.
• It comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
• The BSF has its own cadre of officers but its head, designated as a Director-General (DG), since its raising has been an officer from the Indian Police Service.
• It currently stands as the world’s largest border guarding force. BSF has been termed as the First Line of Defence of Indian Territories.

7. Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS)

Subject – Governance

Context – Revamped CGHS website, app launched

Concept –

• For the last six decades Central Government Health Scheme is providing comprehensive medical care to the Central Government employees and pensioners enrolled under the scheme.
• In fact CGHS caters to the healthcare needs of eligible beneficiaries covering all four pillars of democratic set up in India namely Legislature, Judiciary, Executive and Press.
• CGHS is the model Health care facility provider for Central Government employees & Pensioners and is unique of its kind due to the large volume of beneficiary base, and open ended generous approach of providing health care.
• Presently approximately 38.5 lakh beneficiaries are covered by CGHS in 74 cities all over India and the endeavour is to include more cities to improve the accessibility of the services.
• CGHS provides health care through following systems of Medicine
• Allopathic
• Homoeopathic
• Indian system of medicine
  • Ayurveda
  • Unani
  • Siddha and
  • Yoga

8. National Policy on Electronics 2019

Subject – Economy

Context – India is likely to achieve electronics production of $300 billion by 2026, lower than the target of $400 billion by 2025 set as per the National Policy on Electronics (NPE) 2019, according to a vision document

Concept –

• The National Policy on Electronics 2019 (NPE 2019), envisages to position India as a global hub for Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) with thrust on exports by encouraging and driving capabilities in the country for developing core components, including chipsets, and creating an enabling environment for the industry to compete globally.

9. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Subject – IR

Context – Ukraine crisis: West braces for Russian aggression; NATO sends jets, warships

Concept –

• It is an intergovernmental military alliance.
• Established by Washington treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949.
• Headquarters — Brussels, Belgium.
• Headquarters of Allied Command Operations — Mons, Belgium.

Significance:

• It constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party.

Composition:

• Since its founding, the admission of new member states has increased the alliance from the original 12 countries to 30. The most recent member state to be added to NATO was North Macedonia on 27 March 2020.
• NATO membership is open to “any other European state in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area.”

Objectives:

• Political – NATO promotes democratic values and enables members to consult and cooperate on defence and security-related issues to solve problems, build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict.
• Military – NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations.
• These are carried out under the collective defence clause of NATO’s founding treaty – Article 5 of the Washington Treaty or under a United Nations mandate, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organisations.